Fortunes fluctuate quickly in fabrication. Following near-record platform ship-ments out of Schiedam last summer, BAM Steel Structures is back to basics, bidding for new work. But this is a problem affecting all Europe's smaller plat-form specialists, with development activity subdued throughout the North Sea.
The company, formerly known as HBG Steel Structures, has had to make do for much of this year with a 200-tonne compression module for NAM's K8-FA-1 development. BAM is also responsible for associated modifications to the K8 platform. The compression facility has been designed by Fluor Daniel to boost the field's pressure from 15 to 25 bar to transport the gas to the F7 platform for further compression and processing.
Load-out of the Q4C production platform in July 2003 from the BAM Steel Structures yard in northern Rotterdam.
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Elsewhere in the Dutch sector, BAM has been on the bid list for a new Gaz de France project in blocks G17 and K2. Here, two platforms weighing 3,000 tonnes each are required, ready for installation next summer. In April, however, BAM lost out on Wintershall's F16-E platform, which went to Heerema in Zwijndrecht.
Short-term prospects ought to be brighter, with new gas supplies urgently needed on the UK mainland. Some will come through Gasunie's recently approved offshore trunkline between Balgzand and Bacton. So far, however, this has not ignited activity on the Dutch shelf close to the route of the new line. Nor has the recent influx of independents to the Dutch sector, most of which seem to be biding their time, pending the government's review of punitive E&P taxation measures.
The UK's southern gas basin looks more hopeful. BAM is on the shortlist for the platform for ConocoPhillips' Saturn development. Tullow Oil is in the market for installations for its Horne and Wren projects, and Shell is eyeing a platform for the Cutter field. Elsewhere, Norway's own wave of production-hungry newcomers may provide openings on marginal fields.
"For the time being, however, we are mainly looking to bid for onshore packages in Norway relating to the Ormen Lange project," says BAM Steel Structures' Marketing Manager Koos Krispijn. This would probably be under sub-contract to main local fabricators such as Aker Stord.
As a fallback, in case these opportunities do not materialize, the company has also been looking further afield. It was in discussions with ConocoPhillips about supplying living quarters for the CoroCoro development offshore Venezuela, but that project was eventually shelved. This May, following OTC, it joined the IRO trade mission to Mexico, where it learned first-hand about Pemex's fabrication requirements. Most Mexican yards lack the capability to produce North Sea-standard living quarters. BAM feels it can be competitive in this sector with market leaders such as Pharmadule Emtunga, and Leirvik Sveis. Its most recent delivery was the 22-man, 400-tonne quarters for Wintershall's Q4C gas production platform. The entire installation, in fact, was shipped out of Schiedam last summer.
BAM also expects to win the contract to extend the stinger of Allseas' deepwater pipelay vessel Solitaire. One of the three stinger sections will be replaced by two new sections, to allow pipelay in deeper water.
